Robin Gilthorpe has visited and lived in so many places around the world it would make traveling chef Anthony Bourdain green with envy. Along the way, he’s learned to speak six languages and taught himself to write code by reading a manual while working on a securities trading floor.

What’s not quite as easy is explaining to us mere mortals how Terracotta is using mountains of personal data in real-time to change the world we’re all navigating with our smartphones. Still, we chatted recently with Gilthorpe, asking him to go easy on us, and here’s some of what he said about his life and love of big data, edited for length and clarity:

Q: So, you’ve got wanderlust?

A: I’m a bit of a global wanderer, I suppose, having lived in Milan, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Tokyo and now San Francisco. And one of the most interesting things you learn is how people around the world are much more similar than they are different. Plus, having grown up in a political family, I was able to meet people like Margaret Thatcher and (Mikhail) Gorbachev when I was a teenager growing up in London, with my father serving in Parliament.

Q: So, you also have a politician’s blood coursing through those veins?

A: My dad, who died last year, was first a member of the House of Commons, then the House of Lords, and later as part of the Privy Council of England, which advices the queen on constitutional matters. My mom’s also in politics and recently won yet another election in regional politics. But I was never interested in politics, so I guess my upbringing had the appropriate inoculating effect. And I never did meet the queen. I think by the time I was old enough to behave myself enough to be invited to Buckingham Palace, I was already traveling the world.

Q: So, after studying high school in France, then college in England and Italy, how did you end up on the path that led you to the world of big data?

A: After college, I started out in banking, working in the capital markets. My studies were in quantitative economics, so I worked as an analyst. But this was at a time when the computer systems, it’s fair to say, weren’t outstanding. So, for whatever crazy reason, I decided to teach myself to write C code, a programming language, while reading a manual sitting on the trading-room floor. Later, when I was working at a software development company, we were focused on building decision-support systems for traders in capital markets. I knew shockingly little about technology, but this work gave me insight into how tech could be used to improve trading in capital markets and make it more streamlined.

Q: So, this new and faster technology helped investors make better bets?

A: Yes. For example, when new financial products would come up, which they do from time to time, the old systems couldn’t handle all the information necessary to enable people to understand what the valuations and risks of those products were. And if you can’t accurately price an investment vehicle, that can hurt you.

Q: After launching a couple of startups, you ended up at Terracotta in 2012 and everything sort of clicked?

A: It’s a great place to be. I reached this natural point where you see all of these new trends going on around you, whether it’s cloud computing or big data or social media. And they all merge together and create these completely new opportunities. Terracotta sits at the crossroad of big data and fast data, which means our software allows you to store, manage and use vast amounts of data. And our products sit inside dozens of applications that you use everyday on your smartphone.

Q: Give us an example of how Terracotta software can help a client.

A: We help credit-card companies manage fraud risk. And speed is everything, because it’s much more valuable to the card company to spot that fraud when the person who has somehow cloned your card is standing in front of the big-screen TV he’s about to buy rather than 45 minutes later, when he’s at home watching the TV you just bought for him. Our products let companies do this much, much faster, which means they’re much better at finding threats and trapping them in the moment. Especially with the mobile devices we’re all carrying, this becomes a huge opportunity to manage the customer experience.

Q: And your software, I imagine, will help retailers as well?

A: Absolutely. If you’re like me, you want to get into and out of the store as quickly as possible. So, while you may use GPS to get to the store, you now need interior GPS to help you hit the right aisles. But beyond that, big data can help the retailer offer you real-time coupons as you get close to items that data indicate you may be interested in, say, from a previous shopping trip. So Terracotta software helps retailers such as athletic apparel makers reach you while you’re walking down the aisle. Because once you’ve left the mall, it’s too late.

Age: 45Hometown: Bishop’s Stortford, England Positions: CEO, Terracotta, and a member of the group executive board of Software AG.Previous jobs: Senior vice president at New Era of Networks, senior vice president at Tibco Software. Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics and Italian; econometrics postgrad in Italy.Family: Married; two childrenResidence: San Francisco

FIVE THINGS ABOUT ROBIN GILTHORPE

1. Summer job at school was in garbage collection, a trade term for a problem that Java programs experience when addressing large memory sets.2. Speaks six languages; got the bug for learning them while at high school in France.3. Learned C++ from a book while sitting on a trading floor. He says his first programs, used to value financial portfolios, were ugly, but they ran.4. His family business was national politics in the UK, so he met many interesting characters, including Margaret Thatcher.5. He has lived and worked around the world, including Milan, Madrid, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York, London and now San Francisco.

Patrick May is an award-winning writer for the Bay Area News Group working with the business desk as a general assignment reporter. Over his 34 years in daily newspapers, he has traveled overseas and around the nation, covering wars and natural disasters, writing both breaking news stories and human-interest features. He has won numerous national and regional writing awards during his years as a reporter, 17 of them spent at the Miami Herald.

A series of reports this year by researchers and media have drawn attention to the loose movement and its propagation on social media. In April, an advocacy group called the Tech Transparency Project warned that Boogaloo followers were discussing taking up arms while promoting protests to "liberate" states from coronavirus restrictions.